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New Dowelltown Playground Now Open

A ribbon cutting was held Saturday morning to commemorate the completion of the new playground at Dowelltown.

City leaders, members of the DeKalb County Children's Service Council, the Chamber of Commerce, and corporate donors were on hand for the occasion.

Dowelltown Mayor Gerald Bailiff said the $30,000 project has been in the making for several years and was completed about three weeks ago. "We had a playground here that was actually from the old Dowelltown school but the state came in and looked at it and condemned it because it was so old. The school has been gone for several years. So they (state) came in and said it had to go so we had to have it removed. That's when we got started on this (project)."

"We've been trying to get all this together for going on five to six years now. We have six sets of swings, monkey bars, slides, and all kinds of climbing things here where the kids can play on.'

"We had fundraisers like sock hops, car shows, and bake sales. Of course, the Children's Service Council, DTC Communications, Liberty State Bank, and everybody donated to it to get it all going for us. We've put a lot of time and effort into it."

Clata Redman said the DeKalb County Children's Service Council was instrumental in helping raise funds for the project. "We were looking for some children projects to do here in the county and found that they needed some playground equipment in Dowelltown. The children were playing on the streets and needed a place so we decided we would help them.'

‘We did have to do fundraisers at different times. One of our largest contributors was Wal-mart. They were a very good supporter. We've also had people to give personal grants.'

"Our organization is a volunteer group. No one gets paid. We could use more physical hands to help us do more projects in the community. So we would like to ask anyone who has extra time on their hands to help us get projects for our children in the county."